Motorsports: Close win for Arya Gandhi

Hyderabad, May 20 (IANS) Mumbai lad Arya Gandhi of RayoRacing (206 points) pipped Chennai's Surya Raguram of Meco Racing by one point (205) to emerge the Junior Max champion in the JKTyre-MMS Rookie Cup karting championship here Sunday.

Gandhi, who led the consistent Raguram by a single point after three races on Saturday, finished third in Sunday's opening race which was won by Raguram, but came back strongly to win the last race in which Raguram finished third.

"I am thrilled to win the championship," said Gandhi, a class 9 student of Hill Spring School, after the second and final round of five races in the 10-race series.

Mysore boy H.B. Phaneesh of Mohite's Racing (225 points) and Anshuman Chatterjee of Mumbai (Rayo Racing, 215 points) emerged champions in the Micro Max and Senior Max categories.

The Rookie Cup is a prelude to the JKTyre National Rotax Max championship commencing in June and provides an opportunity to rookie drivers to step up.

The winners of the three classes in the Rookie Cup will be rewarded with Scholarship Training Programmess under former ace driver Akbar Ebrahim.

The results:

Micro Max (10 laps): Race 4 - 1. H.B. Phaneesh 6mins, 10.858secs; 2. Preethunna 6:21.994; 3. Yash Aradhya 6:23.958.Race 5: 1. Phaneesh 6:02.472; 2. Padam 6:03.293; 3. Mrinal 6:19.430.

Junior Max: Race 4 (15 laps) - 1. Surya Raguram 8:31.154; 2. Nayan Chatterjee 8:33.668; 3. Arya Gandhi 8:35.696. Race 5 (14 laps): 1. Arya Gandhi 9:00.091; 2. Nayan Chatterjee 9:02.944; 3. Surya Raguram 9:03.200.

Senior Max: Race 4 (15 laps): 1. Pranav Thakkar 8:41.799; 2. Anshuman Chatterjee 8:43.675; 3. Rubeel Saleem 8:50.986. Race 5 (14 laps): 1. Pranav Thakkar 9:09.297; 2. Anshuman Chatterjee:13.763; 3. Rubeel Saleem 9:17.924.

Championship positions:

Micro Max: 1. H.B. Phaneesh 225points; 2. Yash Aradhya 174; 3. Mrinal Chatterjee 105.

Junior Max: 1. Arya Gandhi 206; 2. Surya Raguram 205; 3. Akash Gowda 123.

Senior Max: 1. Anshuman Chatterjee 215 points; Rubeel Saleem 180; 3. Pranav Thakkar 162.